When he first saw the American Athletic Conference schedule last summer, University of Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin saw a problem.

The Bearcats were scheduled to play at Rutgers in their final regular-season game a little more than 36 hours after they played their final home game against Memphis. Figuring that his team might have a shot at the American Athletic Conference championship in that last game, he didn't like the way it set up.

That's exactly how it has played out.

"I'm disappointed that we're playing Saturday at noon," Cronin said, "which I voiced when the schedule came out. It doesn't help that we've got to fly to New Jersey and play against a team that played (Wednesday) night that drove a bus maybe two hours to play UConn and was home (Wednesday) night in their bed. But our program is about toughness. It's the ultimate test of toughness on Saturday."

No. 15 UC (25-5 overall, 14-3 in the American) can lock up at least a share of its first conference title since 2004 with a win over the Scarlet Knights (11-19, 5-12) when they play at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

"It's something that we've been striving for the past couple of years," said UC guard Sean Kilpatrick.

The Bearcats will begin play tied with Louisville for first place. The Cardinals play at home against Connecticut two hours after the UC-Rutgers game tips off. If both teams win, they'll be declared co-champions, with the No. 1 seed for next week's conference tournament to be decided by a tie-breaking formula (detailed below).

The Bearcats are coming off a 97-84 Senior Night victory Thursday over Memphis in which they played probably their best offense of the season, with senior forward Titus Rubles scoring a career-high 24 points, a welcome development as the postseason beckons.

If Rubles can deliver only half that many points on a consistent basis, it would provide the Bearcats with a huge lift. It also helped in the Memphis game that Justin Jackson managed to stay out of foul trouble.

"I just kept telling myself, all right, he's coming to you, do not foul," Jackson said. "I know when I got on the bench, it's not going to be pleasant, so don't foul."

UC committed only three turnovers against Memphis after committing a total of 33 in its previous two games – both losses - while scoring only five fewer points than it managed in those two games combined. The trick now is to find a way to bottle that kind of production for the postseason.

"The whole thing is about taking your time," Cronin said, "be strong with the ball and take your time so that you have a chance to see what you should do with the ball. Make simple plays. We don't play all the time as hard on offense as we do on defense. We always play hard on defense but sometimes on offense we rest. We want offense to be easy and against really good teams it's not easy."

Fortunately for the Bearcats, Rutgers is not a really good team, especially on defense where it ranks ninth in the league allowing 76.2 points per game. The Scarlet Knights, who will complete their only season in the American before heading next year to the Big Ten, have lost five of their last six, although they did play well at UConn before falling by six. They're led by guard Myles Mack, who averages 15.3 points and leads the league in free throw shooting at 89.2 percent.

UC beat Rutgers, 71-51, on Fifth Third Arena on Jan. 11, holding the Scarlet Knights without a field goal for the final 11:45, with Rutgers missing its last 11 shots.

Rubles said the Bearcats might be on the verge of another long winning streak.

"The last time we lost two games in a row we went on a 15-game winning streak," Rubles said. "We've just got to get that hunger back."

Here's the tie-breaking procedure for the No. 1 seed in the American Athletic Conference heading into Saturdays' games, with UC and Louisville both tied for first place.

If one team wins and the other loses Saturday, then the winner is the outright regular-season champion and the No. 1 seed.

If both teams finish in a tie, the first tie-breaker is head-to-head results. Since UC and Louisville split their two games, the next tie-breaker is how they did against the teams below them in the standings in descending order.

Without getting into all of the specifics, here's how it shakes out:

If both teams win, then the SMU-Memphis game comes into play. If Louisville, Cincinnati and SMU win, then Louisville gets the top seed (would be 4-0 against SMU/UConn, while Cincinnati would be 2-2).

If Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis win, then a coin flip will determine the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. Both UC and Louisville would be 4-2 against the group of SMU/UConn/Memphis, which would be tied at 12-6.